The Reimagined Little Red Riding Hood
by SoullessDemonai
Summary: This was a project I did for school and one of my friends told me to post it here, so here's Little Red Riding Hood set in modern times with darker twists.


The Re-imagined Little Red Riding Hood

There once was a little girl by the name of Rachel Elsa Dannings, whom everyone called Red for short, and this is her story. Not long ago, she was tasked with taking medicine to her ailing grandmother. "Stay on the main road, Red," Her mother said, knowing the darkness of the city they lived near.

"Don't worry Mom, I'm not a little girl anymore." Red complained to her mother as she grabbed the bag.

"I just worry, please say you'll stay safe."

"Alright, alright, I'll stay on the main road."

Red opened the door of her house, and walked out, looking at the small suburb she lived in. Walking by was a pair of men, who couldn't have been older than mid-thirties even if the younger looking one was perhaps mid-twenties. Without wanting to make an awkward situation, Red walked to the road and started on her way to the apartment complex her grandmother owned. The two men however watched her closely, the youngest whispering to his comrade "Such pristine skin, so lovely."

"Indeed Ted, she's perfect."

Having entered the city limit Red looked back at the suburb she lived and noticed the two men walking close behind. 'Are they following me?' She wondered and quickly dismissed the idea, they were probably just going to work, even if it was Sunday. She continued along, following the main road as she was initially instructed, and soon came to a convenience store where she noticed another teenager, slightly older than her, walking out of it. "FINN!" She called, running up to the boy.

"Hey... Red right? The girl that goes to St. Lupen's Christian Academy?" The boy asked trying to play off his confusion.

"Yeah, it's been a while hasn't it?"

"Long enough to have trouble remembering a girl like you, so what's with the bag?"

"I'm taking medicine to my grandmother across town."

"Oh you mean the woman that owns building 221?"

"Yeah that's her."

"I know a shortcut through the alleys, if you want." Finn offered.

"YES! Er, I mean, yes that would be nice." Red said looking away.

"Follow me," Finn said turning towards a scarcely lit alley and walked in like he owned the place, Red tailing after him.

Ted turned to his comrade giggling uncontrollably trying to squeeze out a sentence that sounded like "Follow her, we kill the boy and get her in the alley, easy-peasy!" to which Jeffery nodded smirking at the thought of skinning the both of them. "Such virile young flesh." He said wistfully, urging his friend to follow them quickly.

Red and Finn were walking in silence through the alley, mostly trying to avoid all the bottles and other garbage strewn about in the shadows when they reached a fence. Finn turned to Red saying "This is where we'll have to climb I'll help you… hey aren't those the guys that were behind you when we met at the store?"

"Hello children," the older one said, with a sickeningly sweet smile "We seem to be lost and heard you say something of a shortcut and… oh the Hell with this we're here to kill you, such lovely skin you have, all the better for warmth being so stretchy and smooth."

"I thought we agreed I would do the talking!" Complained the younger of the two.

"Be QUIET Ted, you'll alert someone, and we have business to attend to." The older one said coldly smiling, the too-sweet smile gone, and the dark glint of bloodlust leaking into his eyes as he drew a smooth blade hidden in his coat-arm. The blade glinted in the dim light, catching seemingly all that was in the cramped alley, and was nearly a foot long, with a large, heavy looking pommel. Red stared in shock at the two men, as the other drew what seemed to be a bully-club. Finn, seemingly unshaken turned back to Red and threw her over the fence with surprising strength and yelled "RUN QUICKLY!" He then scooped up a pair of bottles at his feet and chucked them at the men, making each either dodge or stagger. He rushed Ted to get the bully-club and wrenched it from his hands, turning to face the other man… just in time to get stabbed by the elder man who recovered faster. Red screamed, her hands flying to her face as she bolted down the other side of the alley, trying to get the image of her friend dying out of her mind. "Damn boy, Ted, I'll take care of this one, you go catch the girl!" commanded the man with the knife, watching his comrade shoot off after the girl, who had already rounded the corner and was sprinting down the side-street. The elder man crouched next to the boy and slit his throat, tutting angrily at the sloppy corpse he now had to hide and how the skin wouldn't be a clean cut hide like he preferred.

Tears rolled down Red's face as she ran from Ted and turned a corner too quickly, skidding on the asphalt and slipping onto a loose manhole cover. Thinking quickly, she managed to move the cover enough to slip in, though her shirt tore as she did so and landed with a squelch onto discarded trash, mostly wrappers and cups from a previous bit of roadwork that was done nearby. She did her best not to breathe through her nose as she moved to the small ledge inside the dark tunnel. She couldn't see anything beyond a small bit of light seeping through the holes in the cover. 'Why is this happening?' wanted to scream, but settled for keeping quiet so she wouldn't be found. She couldn't bring herself to believe that Finn was dead, that he was just gone from the world, to be a skinless corpse in some creep's basement. She was more terrified on the thought that she was relieved, not just when Ted ran over the cover in search for her, meaning she was safe again, but that she was alive, even when Finn was gone. She was glad in fact, that he had died in her stead, and it disgusted her all the more. She waited another few hours, tears streaming down like rain before she returned to street level to continue on her way. She knew Grandma would comfort her if no-one else would.

Little did Red know that Ted had returned to Jeffery with bad and good news, saying that he remembered the boy saying something about a woman owning building 221 nearby. "We could kill the old woman and kill the girl when she comes in!" he continued excitedly.

"Yes, and if we have time we could skin the old woman, wear her skin to trick the young girl!" Jeffery replied, his eyes getting back the glint they had before Finn attacked. The two men rushed to the building over the fence and nearly tripped over a loose manhole cover, cursing quietly as they ran down the street. They entered 221 and found that the landlady lived on the first floor second room. They found it easily enough when Ted said "221B, just like the woman said."

"Yes," Jeffery said, still despondent over the loss of the boy's skin. He knocked on the door calmly and was greeted by the elderly woman who he quickly killed with a slash to the throat. The men worked quickly, using the sink as a makeshift hose as they skinned and cleaned the woman's hide, and once satisfied Ted slid into the flesh, crinkling his nose at the scent still, even as he got his sick pleasure of feeling skin against his. He shuddered as he pulled the head over his and felt the skin tighten around his round face. He pressed it close so it seemed more like he was her and improvised some parts of the body while Jeffery cleaned the blood off of the tile floors and returned with another set of the woman's clothes. "Change into these quickly, we don't know how quickly the girl will get here. I'll wait outside to make a distraction while you carry the body out, and make sure she isn't too bruised, it won't heal in time."

"Alright, alright, you act like we haven't done this before Jeff." Ted replied irritated after finished changing. He watched Jeffery leave and went and lied down in the bed waiting for the girl to come in. Jeffery was going to wait in the lobby, in a chair in the corner with a magazine, so she wouldn't realize who he was and run screaming. He waited for what must have been 2 hours before he saw the girl enter with shifty eyes, glancing behind her still. She reeked from this distance, and he wondered how long it would take to clean her. He internally grumbled to himself, thinking 'Damn, now she won't smell nice, just gonna end up smelling like soap'. He shrugged and watched the girl walk straight towards 221B and walk in.

Red was still shaking as she walked into her Grandmother's room, still finding it strange that the landlady of a massive apartment complex would choose this room above all the others. "Grandma! I'm here with your medicine!"

"I'm in the bedroom dear!" called back a scratchy voice. Red dismissed the odd sound, knowing that illness could do odd things to a person's voice. She pushed open the door and was shocked that her grandmother looked so ill that she was pale as a corpse, but she shook her head, trying to get the thought of her dead friend out of her mind quickly. "Here's your medicine Grandma." She said placing the bag on the bedside stand.

"Oh could you open it for me dear? My hands are a bit shaky." Her grandmother replied placing her hands under the covers, one gripping something.

"Sure thing," Red said picking up the bottle of pills, but before she could try to open it, the bottle was knocked out of her hand by a club in her grandmother's hand, a sinister grin on Ted's face as he watched the realization was over Red's young face. She screamed and bolted for the door as the next door neighbor burst in, a freshly cleaned gun in hand yelling "What's wrong?!" as Red slammed into him.

"They- HE killed her and he's WEARING her- HE'S WEARING HER SKIN!" she screamed as Ted clambered out of the room, bully-club still in hand, clumsily looking around with that sickening dark smile and evil glint in his eyes, loving the feel of the hunt until he saw the man with the gun aiming down the sights. "Woah now friend, don't be rash now." Ted said, forgetting the façade without a moments second thought. The man aimed and fired through Ted's midsection, conflicted by what he knew and what he saw. He was shaken by shooting an old woman, but what he heard and believed, he was shooting a man in a skin suit, and he shuddered that a man could be so twisted. With the killer incapacitated the man ran out to the lobby yelling for someone to call the police.

Jeffery grunted as the man said that, thinking he best do it not to arouse suspicion and whipped out a phone dialing 911. He asked the man what was going on and was told rather hurriedly as the man ran back into the hall for some reason. Jeffery explained the situation and disappeared from the scene so Red wouldn't betray his identity as easily as he had just betrayed his partner. The police arrived and cleaned up, praising the man with the gun for his quick thinking and comforting Red as best they could, giving her a ride home. Weeks passed and soon the time came for the old woman's funeral. Red's mother, still shaken by hearing her daughter's story though having to work after spending the past two weeks with her daughter, using her remaining vacation and sick days. Red thus walked to the funeral in appropriate attire, her clothes finally matching her dark hair. The funeral went on in a dark silence, a special coffin made for the dead woman, double layered for the two large pieces of her that were recovered. After she was lowered, Red waited by the grave as the other onlookers left, only leaving once it was filled and she felt she could walk again. She walked home, the cold air making her pace brisk as the sun began to set.

Jeffery had been waiting for this moment, this sweet chance for such succulent, pristine skin to be his. He licked his lips when she passed and crept out of his hiding place, quickly out-pacing her and grabbing her up and holding his hand over her mouth as he rushed to his hideout. She squirmed like a fish out of water and he had to fight to keep her from bruising as he held her tighter. She screamed against his hand and he could feel her tears of frustration and fear on the other side, a cold smile spreading across his face. Having made it to his home, he dragged her down to the basement, and threw her against the back wall, a wall covered in dried blood, the entire room smelling like iron. Red quickly stood herself up and looked around for some kind of weapon, but all she saw was past the man. Knowing he was going to try to kill her anyway, she tried to scramble past him to no avail, and was only thrown back against the wall again as he giggled with a sick glee. "I'm going to have fun carving the skin from your bones, and even more so enjoying your sweet meat." he said licking his lips, his crazed grin making him look like a deranged clown. Red screamed and threw herself passed the man only to be slammed into the wall with the weapons, a sickle inches from her face. The man leaned his face close to hers chuckling. "Where, oh where to begin with you? Such beautiful skin I almost don't want to cut it."

"Then maybe you could let me go?" Red nearly begged.

"Let you go? Ohhoho no my dear child, you know where I live now, you could easily alert the police of my location, so I'm afraid I have to kill you anyway. The question is how should I do it? I could just slit your throat, but that seems so anticlimactic, hmm… I could poison you and watch you curl in agony," he continued stroking her arms with a sadistic smile, "Yes, I think I'll do just that." He finished throwing her to the other wall. He moved quickly and had a greenish liquid in a bowl before Red could understand what was even going on. He forced her mouth open and moved her head up, pouring the putridly colored liquid down her throat as she clutched his wrist. He dropped her unceremoniously and watched her writhe on the floor screaming in agony as the cyanide burned her innards. Once she stopped moving the man cackled, and began his gruesome work with a glee reserved for the insane.


End file.
